1. Field of the Invention
The field of this invention relates to electrical connectors and more particularly to electrical connectors that work in conjunction with a plug-in module of an electrical equipment housing and also in conjunction with a mezzanine board that is mounted in conjunction with the electrical equipment housing.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electrical equipment housings frequently have a plurality of plug-in modules located in a spaced apart stacked arrangement. Each plug-in module constitutes a printed circuit board which includes a series of ports. It is common that a typical plug-in module will have about thirty-two in number of such ports. Exterior electrical equipment will be plugged into these ports.
Electrical power must be supplied to the plug-in module. There is a need to construct a simplified plug assembly arrangement that will transmit this power directly to the plug-in module. This connector assembly must be small, compact, composed of few parts and can directly conduct a substantial amount of power.
Also, in conjunction with electrical equipment, there is commonly mounted a mezzanine board located directly adjacent a plug-in module and which is usually mounted between a pair of the plug-in modules. There is to be a mezzanine board for each plug-in module and the purpose of the mezzanine board is to increase the number of ports. The mezzanine board can increase the number of ports to ninety-six in number as opposed to thirty-two.
In the past, the power to the mezzanine board was supplied from the plug-in module. Therefore, the amount of power that was supplied to the mezzanine board was limited. For example, there may be four hundred amps supplied to the plug-in module. Of that four hundred amps only one-hundred eighty amps could be supplied to the mezzanine board which would limit the number of ports that could be utilized on the mezzanine board. It would be desirable to find some way to supply the four hundred amps also to the mezzanine board, the same as the plug-in module.